Last weekend at the
penultimate round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series in Salt
Lake City, Ryan Villopoto clinched his third straight title.

The
Monster Energy Kawasaki KX450F rider took the win, which tied his career
best of nine in a season. But the Washington native was hungry for one
more. And due to this, he didn’t relax at Saturday night’s SX finale at
Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

Villopoto went on to win the
round, his tenth this season. This is now his personal best for a single
season. Joining Villopoto on the podium was Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey
and Rockstar Energy Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps.

Before nearly 40,000
fans, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer took the Nuclear Cowboyz
Holeshot. As for Villopoto, he began mid-pack after a bad start.

But by the end of the first lap, Villopoto was in the lead. He led all 20 laps en route to the win.

Ryan
Villopoto (Monster Energy Kawasaki KX-F 450 Supercross) says; “This is a
great way to cap the season off. We rebounded this year from a bad
start at the season opener and won the title. There is no better way to
end a season than like this.”

Though the battle was intense right up to the checkers, Monster Energy
Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto came out on top in 450 Supercross in Salt Lake
City and walks away with this third consecutive 450 Supercross title.
Rockstar Energy Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps finished the night in second,
just 1.5 seconds behind RV and Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey rounds out the
podium.

Dungey came charging off the start, grabbing the
holeshot and pushing hard to maintain the lead but Villopoto found a
line past within the first lap. The 2013 Supercross champion held the
front for all 20 laps in Salt Lake City, but it wasn’t without serious
pressure from Millsaps and Dungey. The two riders remained locked in
close quarters throughout the race, but it was Millsaps who gained the
early upper hand, moving into the runner-up spot within the opening
laps. Dungey moved in close a number of times, coming right up on
Millsaps’ rear tire, but couldn’t push past.

Villopoto,
meanwhile, stretched a multiple second gap early in the race but lost
any comfortable buffer as Millsaps continued to turn nearly flawless
laps. At one point late in the race, the Suzuki rider came within half a
second of RV with Dungey still close behind. It was a nail-biter right
to the finish between the top-three and a remarkable night for
Villopoto, who marks this as his ninth race win in 2013 in addition to
claiming the championship.

Team Honda Muscle Milk’s Justin Barcia took his second 450 SX win of the
season in Seattle, spoiling Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Ryan
Villopoto’s chance to grab the top step in front of his home crowd. RV
ended the night in second, followed by Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps in third.

Barcia
was an animal from the get-go, grabbing the holeshot and leading every
lap of the contest. He avoided a pile-up in the first turn that took
down Discount Tire Americas’ Chad Reed and Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey,
an incident which took Reed out for the night. Dungey soldiered on, but
was well outside the top-10 in 16th.

Villopoto settled into
third-place behind Motoconcepts’ Mike Alessi for the opening laps, but
quickly moved past the Suzuki rider. From there RV reeled Barcia in and
then lost ground, repeating the pattern numerous times as both fought to
keep steady on the rough track. In the later laps Barcia avoided any
major incident and crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of the
defending Supercross champion.

“I tell you what, that holeshot is
so key,” said Barcia. “We made some great changes today on the bike. It
was a tough track with so many lines, but there was one main line that
was so much better than any other. I’ve been waiting for this since
Phoenix.”

The 2013 450 Supercross race in Minneapolis is one they’ll be talking
about a long time, thanks to the battle between Red Bull KTM’s Ryan
Dungey and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto in the final laps.
At the checkers it was Minnesota native, Dungey, who came through with
the win, edging out RV by 0.9 seconds and bringing every last member of
the Metrodome audience to their feet. Rockstar Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps
finished the night in third well behind the front-runners, ending 17
seconds adrift of Villopoto.

Motoconcepts’ Mike Alessi nabbed
the holeshot, but was unable to turn his quick start to a lead as
Villopoto, Dungey and RCH’s Josh Hill pushed ahead and assumed the one,
two and three spots respectively. Within the opening laps Millsaps found
a line past Hill into third and was able to keep within striking
distance of Dungey for a period, but was unable to make anything come of
it through the first half of the race. Hill remained steady in fourth
until mid-race when Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart made the pass for
position. After that, Hill continued to slip down the ranks until
finally reaching eighth, where he’d eventually finish.

Stewart,
on the other hand, seemed to have plenty of speed on his side, moving
from eighth in the opening laps to within sight of podium position at
the mid-point of competition. Something went wrong with JS7 soon after
he moved to fourth though; he pulled off track and headed to the
mechanics area, ending his night early. The Suzuki ace struggled earlier
on in the day as well, crashing hard during his heat and having to
battle in the LCQ for a bid to the main, marking yet another frustrating
turn of events for Bubba.